The LAPD: Chief Bratton

Chief William J. Bratton was appointed Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department on October 28, 2002. Chief Bratton oversees the third largest police department in the United States, managing 9,300 sworn officers, 3,000 civilian employees, and an annual budget of more than one billion dollars. A strong community policing advocate, he is directing a major reengineering of the LAPD, decentralizing the bureaucracy, strengthening local commands, increasing responsiveness to community concerns, and developing strategies to counter gang-related crimes and the threat of terrorism. During his first three years as Chief in Los Angeles, the LAPD has driven Part I crime down 26.4 percent, including a 25.5 percent reduction in homicide. The Department has also developed one of the most comprehensive and effective counter-terrorism operations in the country.

The only person ever to serve as chief executive of both the LAPD and the NYPD, Chief Bratton established an international reputation for re-engineering police departments and fighting crime in the 1990s. As Chief of the New York City Transit Police, Boston Police Commissioner, then New York City Police Commissioner, he revitalized morale and cut crime in all three posts, achieving the largest crime declines in New York City’s history. He led the development of COMPSTAT, the internationally acclaimed command accountability metric system that uses computer-mapping technology and timely crime analysis to target emerging crime patterns and coordinate police response. From 1996 on, Chief Bratton worked in the private sector, where he formed his own private consulting company, The Bratton Group, L.L.C., working on four continents, including extensive consulting in South America. He also consulted with the Kroll Associates monitoring team overseeing the implementation of the Federal Consent Decree with the LAPD.

A U.S. Army Vietnam veteran, Chief Bratton began his policing career in 1970, as a police officer with the Boston Police Department, rising to Superintendent of Police, the department’s highest sworn rank, in just ten years. In the 1980s, Chief Bratton headed two other police agencies, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police and the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission Police.

Chief Bratton holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Law Enforcement from Boston State College/University of Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute and was a Senior Executive Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He currently serves as the elected President of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). He is a frequent lecturer, writer, and commentator. His critically acclaimed autobiography, Turnaround, was published by Random House in 1998. Among his many honors and awards, Chief Bratton holds the Schroeder Brothers Medal, the Boston Police Department’s highest award for valor. Chief Bratton is married to Attorney Rikki Klieman and has one grown son, David Bratton.